Teacher gets 4 years for killing policeman

Teacher gets 4 years for killing policeman

JAKARTA (JP): Baskoni Wahab, the teacher tried for killing a police major, went pale on Tuesday when the East Jakarta District Court sentenced him to four years imprisonment.

The defendant, a teacher for a private economics high school in Cawang, East Jakarta, collapsed after the judge completed reading the verdict. He was taken from the courthouse in an ambulance.

Judge Toni Hartono, who presided over the trial, said that the 50-year-old defendant was found guilty of killing Maj. Noenang Kohar on Jl. Wismajaya, East Jakarta, on Oct. 14.

The judge said that witnesses' testimony and material evidence proved that Baskoni stabbed Noenang in the stomach.

The post mortem examination report from Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital stated that Noenang's death was caused by a wound to the stomach.

Visitors, 70 of them Baskoni's relatives and colleagues, packed the courtroom to hear the sentence.

Prosecutor Bonar Gultom previously demanded that the court sentence Baskoni to eight years.

'Dog'

The prosecutor said that Baskoni shouted "dog" at Noenang when the major's Daihatsu Taft passed the bajaj (three-wheeled transit vehicle) he was riding in.

Noenang then tried to stop the bajaj, but Baskoni asked the driver to proceed, Gultom said. Noenang followed the bajaj and cut off it on Jl.Wismajaya.

When Noenang slapped Baskoni, Baskoni parried and stabbed the victim in his stomach with a knife, the prosecutor said.

"What the defendant has done violated Article 354 of the Criminal Code," the judge said on Tuesday.

By carrying a knife with him everywhere, the defendant could hurt other people at any time, he said.

The defendant's regret over the unpremeditated murder and his being 50 years old was taken into consideration in handing down a lighter sentence than requested, the judge said.

Maj. Noenang Kohar was chief of the Pademangan police subprecinct in North Jakarta. He was on the way home when the incident happened.

The lawyers for the defendant said they would probably appeal. (29)